XPost: comp.mobile.android, alt.comp.os.windows-10   
   From: ldo@nz.invalid   
      
   On Mon, 10 Feb 2025 08:47:39 +0100, Arno Welzel wrote:   
      
   > Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 2025-02-09 00:35:   
   >   
   >> So you never used core memory.   
   >   
   > Correct. But core memory is not intended as *persistent* memory, even   
   > when it can be used this way.   
      
   It was indeed regularly used that way. Consider that, on machines from the   
   core memory era, there was no “boot ROM”. The first-stage bootloader was   
   typically around a dozen machine instructions or so, which had to be hand-   
   entered using front-panel switches. (No doubt seasoned operators had this   
   memorized.) It was handy that this could be preserved across power cycles,   
   assuming it didn’t get overwritten by some wayward buggy program.   
      
   Then there were applications that ran without an OS as such. For example,   
   on the PDP-8, you could load a BASIC interpreter. This would take about 20   
   minutes to load off paper tape. So the fact that a power cycle did not   
   wipe memory was helpful if you had a lot of BASIC programs to run.   
      
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